Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Rss
Pillar

Politics & Law

The third pillar of a decent society is a just system of politics and law. Such a government does not bind all persons, families, institutions of civil society, and actors in the marketplace to itself as subservient features of an all-pervading authority. Instead, it honors and protects the inherent equal dignity of all persons, safeguards the family as the primary school of virtue, and seeks justice through the rule of law.

American Apostasy at 250 

By
Read More

Learn more about Politics & Law: get your free eBook today!

Subscribe
Subscribe
Subscribe
Subscribe
Subscribe
SCOTUS

The Court Curtails the Administrative State

By
The modern administrative state rests on a dismissal of separation of powers principles. But for the Left to even use the language of separation of powers suggests some victory for conservatism.
elections

Why You Still Can’t Trust the Polls

By
There is no panacea for what ails polling. But greater transparency in polling might help to weed out the worst polls while prompting the best pollsters to discover how to do better in time for 2026 or 2028.
pregnant woman

Three Abortion Stories for a Post-Dobbs America

By
Dear reader, as you step away from my story, I have two requests: first, believe women when they tell you about sexual violence. And second, recognize that abortion coercion is real. 
Ultrasound

Pivoting to Unwanted and Coerced Abortion: A Manifesto

By , and
While we continue to seek ways to extend robust legal protection to prenatal children and to persuade our pro-choice brothers and sisters that such laws are necessary to forge a truly just society, we should all be able to come together to stop unwanted abortion. 
pro-life movement

The Way Forward for Pro-Lifers

By
The law is a teacher, and so is social experience. A society in which abortion is not only legal, but common and easily available, teaches people to regard it as not a big deal. In contrast, restricting abortion sends the message that it is, at the least, a serious matter.
Clarence Thomas

A Constitution for Everyone

By
Originalism is a theory of interpretation, but like any form of legal interpretation, it means little unless applied to facts. And facts are wrapped up in stories. Judge Thapar’s book is a reminder not to forget this.
Decadence and desire

Decadence and Desire

By
If young people are taught to look at history only through the lenses of power and oppression, they will conclude that power and oppression are everything. Conversely, let them be introduced first to the genuinely great historical deeds, philosophical ideas, literary creations, and works of art of which humans have been capable. Then they will discover the ideals that moved our predecessors.
UN HQ

The ICPD Programme of Action at Thirty: Protecting Human Rights, Promoting Development, and Respecting State Sovereignty

By
For future CPD outcome documents and political declarations to be truly consensual and reflective of the priorities of all countries, states must ensure that the UN system as a whole stays away from ideological agendas and meets the authentic needs of the world.
assisted dying

Is the Fight against Assisted Dying a Lost Cause?

By
Canada’s infamy has led many to rethink their support for assisted dying, no matter how strong the purported safeguards may be.
bioethics

A Common Good Framework in Bioethics and Policy

By
The public bioethics conversations of the twenty-first century will be much more nuanced and complicated than the abortion debate of the last fifty years. If we want to speak thoughtfully about how these and other technologies are shaping our future, we will need to move beyond a reductionist approach to human dignity.
Campus protests

Student Protests and the Old Gods

By
The protests are not simply about Gaza, but concern incompatible ways of life and value. They are another moment in the long rejection of Western metaphysics, anthropology, ethics, and epistemology by Westerners coming of age in a culture that teaches them to despise their own civilization.
Catholic Church

A Review of True Confessions: Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church, by Francis X. Maier

By
Maier’s love for the Church comes through in this book and is why others who love the Church will want to read it. Perhaps we can hope for a sequel in which we will get to hear more of Maier in his own words. 
IVF lab

It’s Time to Regulate IVF

By
It’s way past time for consumer protection in the fertility clinic.
IVF

IVF Provider Immunity in Alabama: A Challenge to National Conservative Unity on Pro-life Issues

By
The new Alabama IVF provider immunity law, recently praised by former President Trump, will have pernicious national consequences on parents’ rights to hold IVF providers accountable and will negatively affect Republican unity over pro-life issues.
pope

In the Courts of Three Popes: An Insider’s Insight

By
Faithfully living what we claim to believe as Catholic Christians shapes the future. And the fact is, we can no longer afford a sclerotic Church, a comfortable Church, a get-along Church. We need to be a confessing Church, not just in our diocesan structures, but in the pews and family homes of every parish.
Vatican

Unjust Wars and Unwise Popes 

By
As we enter the third year of the war, Western nations—with the U.S. in the lead—seem unwilling to get to the heart of the matter. Yes, Ukraine has miraculously survived, but this cannot be for long. We have deluded ourselves into thinking that a compromise with Russia is possible, but it is not. Vladimir Putin will not rest until Ukraine is either subjugated or eliminated. 
torn American flag

Sociology in the Age of Trump: The Clash of Deep Stories on the Left and Right

By
If the stories can change, it stands to reason that they can improve—or deteriorate. Responsible cultural elites of the Left and Right alike would do well to consider not only what claims they make explicitly, but what kinds of stories underlie those claims, and whether these are the right stories to tell.
Lincoln memorial

The Real Mover of “the Civic Bargain”: A Review of Manville and Ober

By
Self-interest in a democracy is not necessarily an evil. It only becomes an evil when democratic government grows so intrusive in ordinary life that self-interest can only be interpreted as a kind of dissent from a general—but now all-pervasive—good.
college students

A Third Voice: Protecting a Regime of Robust Speech on the Campus without Falling into Relativism

By
We must be clear that nothing in the search for the truth entails that we recede in any way from the surety that we have with us, now as ever, the standards for judging evil ends to be truly evil.   
ethics advice column

Ask Chris Tollefsen: An Ethics Advice Column

By
The parallel to vital conflict cases is clear: do not too quickly assume that death is inevitable. Do not too quickly assume that active rather than passive harm needs to be inflicted, even as a side effect.
The Bookshelf

The Bookshelf: Children of Abraham 

By
The plight of the Palestinians is indeed a tragic one. Peace with their stronger neighbor will not come easily to them. Only a cessation of terrorism, of attacks on civilians, and of demonization of the Jewish people will enable them to make any substantial progress. Sad to say, the first steps may have to be taken by the Western elites who have learned to make anti-Semitism fashionable again, and have a great deal of unlearning to do. 
Agrarian life

Rooted in the Nation: Whittaker Chambers’s Agrarian Conservatism

By
Conservative political action can, in fact, be a bulwark of counterrevolution. This is why Whittaker Chambers was a “conservative of the heart,” even if he did not consider himself a “conservative of the head.” In the final analysis, he was a witness to the permanent things.
oath

Disintegrating Conscience in a Fragmented Age 

By
Although one might find oneself disagreeing with Smith, as I have on occasion, one will be better for it. And I can say that with a clear conscience.  
Israel-Hamas War

The West Has Forgotten Why Collateral Damage Is Morally Justified

By
Ultimately, the defeat of these terrorist groups is the primary ethical imperative. This will benefit not only Israel but also the Gazan civilians who suffer longer under their terrorist leaders and the continuous warfare that they breed. There is a moral cost to not acting decisively, and a strategic cost to forgetting the moral justification for killing in war.

Get your free eBook for The Human Person

"*" indicates required fields

Get your free eBook for Sexuality & Family

Get your free eBook for Politics & Law

Get your free eBook for Education & Culture

Get your free eBook for Business & Economics